The Someday Place
by Uncia
Summary: The night before the new curse promises so many things. For Ariel, home is one of them.
1. Part I

In the tower apartment of the Storybrooke library, Ariel dreamed of sunlight.

She'd spent enough nights in this unconscious world to know it like a sea. Except here, she found torches, a grand ballroom, and a human she hoped to meet again. Here there were warm things. Here the only blues were found on Eric's coat and in his eyes, and sometimes the view of the balcony overlooking the ocean.

She woke to the heat of a real sunrise and lingering memories of a prince.

Later in the morning she didn't find a prince, but she found Eric, chopping the heads from dead fish and collecting them in a pile. She would have liked to forget that part. Though she could read no anger in his expression, why else would he do such a thing?

She thought of leaving him alone. Swimming back to the sea and consigning the human who could never love her to the past. But Belle pushed her to him and she swallowed her racing heartbeat back down.

He looked at her as if no time had passed between them, but when he pulled her into a kiss, she felt an unremembered touch that could have spanned centuries. She wondered what life had been like for him on the shores of Storybrooke. A familiar kind of sadness washed from him to her-the kind that rooted deep and spread slowly enough to stay out of sight.

"Do you want to go home?" Eric asked her after the crowd cleared from the Jolly Roger, and what could she say but yes?

They followed the coast to a little white house tucked away from the docks, where the road turned from pavement to dirt. Only a few feet of grass stood between the house and the rocky path down to shore. It was far from the palace, to be sure. But it was his. That was enough.

"I hope you like dogs," Eric said as he fumbled with a ring of tiny keys, "Because he's gonna come at you like you're the most important human in the world."

Human. She almost winced until, true to his word, a fuzzy creature barrelled through the door to greet her. She slipped in the door behind Eric and the furry little ball reared on his hind legs and barked at her like a seal, scraping his claws against the tiled entryway.

"Hi there, you," she cooed, rubbing behind his ears, and the poor thing could have melted in her hands.

"Come on, Max, leave her alone." Eric hauled the dog off of her and Max ran into the living room where he leapt on the couch instead, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. "That little monster would be Max. He's harmless, really, just a bit overenthusiastic. We don't get company often."

"I figured." She could tell by the little pile of wet shoes by the door, some with prominent chew marks, and faint layers of muddy footprints leading into the kitchen. She kicked off her own shoes and added them to the pile before she realized she'd been rude to him already. "Oh-sorry, I didn't mean it like that-"

Eric just laughed. "It's no problem. In fact I think you're the first."

He said something else about dust, but she didn't hear a word of it as she looked over his shoulder. The longest swordfish she'd ever seen sat mounted on the wall, staring with empty eyes and mouth agape. The plaque beside its pectoral fin read Eric's name. She looked to the cabinets, crowded with nautical instruments and pictures of him holding dying fish of all colors. Behind the glass on the top shelf was a picture of him behind a great white shark, blood dripping from its gills and mouth.

"Is something wrong?" He reached to lay a hand on her shoulder, hesitating until she nodded her consent. She wanted so badly to lean into the touch, to wrap him in her arms for as long as she could, but her arms would not move.

"No," she breathed out, still unsure of how much eye contact to make, "no. Everything's-well it's all so new."

"I can imagine. If you have questions about anything at all, I can answer. Or try to. But is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? Some water, maybe?" He rubbed her shoulder and his gentleness broke her. She couldn't form words, so she only nodded and followed him into the kitchen.

When he poured her a glass, she watched his hands shaking. She never mentioned it, just managed a smile in attempt to reassure both him and herself.

She looked at his hands, studied the faint lines between his thumb and index finger that she never remembered seeing, even in all those moments etched forever in her memory. Clean and uniform, like a sharp knife cleaving into flesh. She took the glass of water and downed almost half in one swallow.

And when they fell into silence, Ariel wished she'd gone a little more slowly. Thankfully Eric spoke first.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I should really go shower. I probably smell disgusting."

She bit her lip until blood ran fresh on her tongue. He noticed, clearly-her nerves drew him closer and she could see him searching for anything helpful to say.

"I won't be long. I promise. Please-help yourself to anything in the fridge if you're hungry, and Max will keep you company. And shout if you need anything." He rubbed her arm. "I mean it."

"Okay," she choked out before he disappeared up the stairs, and soon after, the muffled hiss of running water echoed down to where she stood. It almost drowned out the sound of furry feet and claws across the kitchen tile.

"Hi, Max," she said, voice shaky, as she sat down to rub the dog's fur. "Your human isn't fond of fish, is he?"

Max crawled into her lap, and though all of him didn't quite fit, Ariel wrapped her arms around him anyway, leaning her chin on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and stayed as she was for a long moment, and for some reason he sat still. Maybe he enjoyed the attention.

"Is this...the fridge?" She ran a hand over a cold metal drawer that was part of a box as tall as she was. It hummed faintly under her fingertips, and she wiggled out from under Max so she could open it.

Inside, she found things that only vaguely resembled food: containers of multicolored plants surrounded by clear bags of cubed ice. The walls of the drawer were encrusted with a thin layer of frost. She dug through the bags of ice, searching for whatever might be hiding at the bottom of the drawer, but as the shine of scales appeared beneath her fingers, she slammed the drawer shut and tried to rid the image from her mind. Vacant eyes and severed fins, zigzagging muscles showing under skin. All hidden under ice like a terrible secret.

Merpeople weren't exactly strangers to eating fish, crustaceans, much more than seaweed. What else could they have done under the ocean? And then there was the occasional human, but at least in that she'd never partaken. But none of that explained why Eric had been so brutal. She remembered the sound of cracking bones and the distinctly sour smell of dead fish out of water. If those fish were for eating, why would he have collected their severed heads?

"Oh my Ursula, why am I even here?" Ariel said, but to no one in particular, as the dog had gone. "Max?"

She struggled to her feet on the tile, but as the sound of running water fell silent, she slipped and fell on her knees. After a minute or so, she heard his footsteps padding down the stairs, and her breath caught in her throat. Halfway to righting herself, he peeked in the kitchen.

At least she made impressions, if not good ones.

"Socks and tile don't really mix," Eric said, offering her a hand up. "Or, uh-tights in your case."

Somewhere upstairs, Eric had changed into a pair of black slacks and a shirt the color of the sweater he'd worn before-the kind with buttons running down the middle. Probably a poor choice for how his wet hair still dripped a little down his neck. What was it Snow said about wet white dresses? At the moment, Ariel was too distracted to recall.

"Now this looks familiar," Eric said as he took her hand to kiss as elegantly as the prince she remembered. She remembered that smile, too, but she still inched out of his arms and turned her gaze to the door.

"Are you okay?" He asked, following her an arm's length away.

Ariel opened her mouth to utter yes, but instead she shook her head. "No. I'm really not."

"I'm sorry. Am I being too forward?"

She clung to the doorknob. "No. Not at all, it's-"

"Are you sure? Because you look terrified." Eric held out his hands, and while Ariel stood still, she didn't approach. He lowered his hands. "Ariel, tell me. Please. Whatever it is, I'll stop."

"It's nothing. Really, it is." Every lie stole breath from her throat.

"Just talk to me. I won't be angry or upset."

By the time he finished, she couldn't say a word.

He only slightly raised his voice, but the silence in the house made his pleas fill the room. "Why? If you don't want me, I'll understand. I promise I will. But tell me why." When she didn't respond, he inched forward and took both of her hands in his. "Please. I've spent half a life chasing unanswered questions."

"So have I."

"Then you know how it feels. Walk right out that door if you need to. I won't keep you here."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ariel caught a glimpse of the mounted swordfish's dead gaze from above the mantle, but she spoke through her nerves. "It's not that I don't want you. It's the opposite, really. But I'm afraid. I'm so afraid."

"What are you afraid of? Are things going too fast?"

"No. It's-if you knew who I was, you'd hate me. You'd never want to be with me."

"Why would I?"

Nothing Ariel could say would possibly put her secret off any longer. She looked him in the eye for a long moment and finally sat on the couch in the living room, taking a deep breath as he followed, counting in her head-_-one, two, three_-until there was no more point in stalling and she slipped the bracelet from her wrist.

The smoke faded, revealing shining sea-green scales. _Hers_. When she saw him step back, her stomach twisted in knots and even when he spoke, she couldn't look at him.

"Ariel?"

She had to. She owed this much to him. So she gathered the courage to lift her head to meet his, but what she said was only a whisper. "I'm a mermaid."

Like she'd practiced countless times in her mind and in every lonely sea, Ariel braced herself for his disgust. If she prepared well enough for this rejection, she thought that just maybe, if she ever got the chance, it wouldn't hurt. Instead, she got the one thing she almost wished she'd prepared for.

A smile.

"That's okay. _You're_ okay. This isn't what I expected. Not-not anything that I expected. But today I thought I'd go home from work alone, and I came back with you."

Had she heard him correctly?

He knelt in front of the couch and reached for her arm, rubbing gently. "You found me. That's all that matters."

She covered her mouth in the way humans often did before they began to cry. And she felt them-hot tears, the kind she could only shed above the surface, trickling down her cheeks and between her fingers. Though her breath hitched, her cheeks seared, and she probably looked like a mess, Eric still looked at her with the same admiration he always did, and she loved him for it.

Suddenly she felt herself being wrapped in his arms and lifted off the couch and she broke out into dizzy laughter. She leaned close to kiss, still murmuring giggles under his lips.

Even as he pulled back, Ariel watched the silly little grin on his face. He snuck forward to touch her nose to hers and she felt his warm breath across her cheek.

Then, a wet touch against the tips of her fins. She squeaked and twitched her tail. It was only Max sniffing and pawing at the scales she'd already shed over Eric's pant leg.

"Better put me down before Max eats my bracelet and I'm stuck like this forever," she said. At the mention of his name, Max took his eyes off the discarded bracelet and slunk to the foot of the couch. Eric set her back down and handed her the bracelet from the floor.

"So I'm guessing the decor isn't the most inviting for a mermaid."

"Not really. The fish heads from earlier didn't help."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. It's because-" He sounded sheepish, as if it was some kind of secret humans kept, "well, we eat fish."

"So do we, but we don't destroy them like that." Ariel looked over Eric's shoulder to the mantle. She watched him wince before she spoke again. "Or hang them on our walls. I thought you were angry."

"Far from it."

"Merpeople kill humans."

"Maybe some do, but in what little time you've spent with me, you've had plenty of opportunities to do the same. So far you haven't. So forgive me if I think I'm safe with you." He slipped both of her hands in his. "Right now, I know next to nothing about you. I'd like to change that."

"Well, how do humans get to know each other?"

"Usually we start with lunch. Are you hungry?"

"Starving." After slipping on the bracelet, Ariel stood on wobbly legs before Eric steadied her by the waist.

"Would you care for fish? Clams, maybe? I have some leftover chowder in the fridge."

Clams she could do. Chowder-she had no idea what that dish was, or what it had to do with clams, but this was the human world. She'd try anything once. "I'd love that."

Thank you to my lovely beta for sticking through my ficbaby as always. The next two parts are finished except for a few editing spots, so they'll be released before the hiatus ends, after which I fully expect canon to shatter this into a thousand pieces. Feedback is much appreciated!


	2. Part II

In the kitchen, Eric poured liquid into a deep pot and Ariel watched a blue flame bloom underneath. Soon the room smelled of something she would later find to be potatoes. Then, a warm smell mixed with spice and the alluring aroma of fresh clams. Not exactly fish, to be technical, but he was a human. She'd forgive him.

This was one of the things she loved most about the land. The smells, the inviting smells, and how expertly humans manipulated fire and spice to create something new out of practically nothing. Everything about the land was warm where the ocean was not. Fish were cold, the depths were cold, even lying against the rocks and staring up at the faraway sun only made Ariel wish for more light. But even when it was cold above the surface, as it often seemed to be in Storybrooke, homes were heated. Water ran hot. The mere act of cooking heated the room enough that she hung her coat beside Eric's on the rack. She returned to the kitchen to find him pouring out the chowder into bowls that didn't match, steam floating like bubbles above each one.

In her life Ariel had had little but raw clams, straight from the sea, as cool as morning. But this liquid was warm, and full of sensations for which she didn't yet have words. Creamy would be one, with a hint of spice and, of course, fresh clams heated to perfection.

"How is it?" Eric asked.

"What do you humans put in your food that makes it taste so good?"

He shrugged, spooning through his own soup. "Usually just salt and pepper, really. I'm not the best cook."

She blew the steam off her spoon and it floated away in a wisp. "It's like magic."

"I wouldn't say that, but I'll take the compliment."

"I mean it. Did you like to do this when you were a prince?"

"I never got the chance. We always had our own chefs in the kitchen. Sometimes when I was younger I'd sneak some fresh bread straight from their cutting boards though, and they knew better than to let me in after that." He dipped something white and spongy into the soup and ate it just like that.

She tried her best to copy him. It was harder than it looked-the crust cracked and crumbled, but the end result tasted delicious anyway. She hoped she'd never have to go back to eating anything under the sea, for many more reasons than that.

"The only reason I ever really learned how to cook for myself was because Regina cursed me here. At least I think I learned."

"You think?"

"It wasn't really me who did the learning. Regina gave us a separate set of memories to work alongside the curse. Now I know that none of it was real, but I still remember. So now I'm a fisherman and a prince. A former prince. If my kingdom even exists anymore, my cousin's ruling in my stead. At least he was when I left for the expedition."

His pause before "expedition" was almost too slight to notice, but Ariel heard.

"Will you ever go back?"

"I don't know. To be honest, sometimes I think it's not my life anymore."

She'd never been cursed, but she knew the feeling all too well.

"I came back for you, you know. Later in the evening-I thought you'd be gone by then, but I saw you waiting, even when the sun set."

"What? Where were you?"

"In the ocean." When he stared, Ariel clarified. "I had my tail. It's a long story, but Regina was going to hurt Snow, and I needed to take her somewhere safe."

"Did you say anything? I'm sorry I didn't hear you."

"She stole my voice. I wanted to call out to you, but I couldn't."

"Why would she do that? I mean, she cursed everyone, but-"

"I kind of stabbed her in the neck with a mini trident." She bit her lip, sheepish, but only because she couldn't remember the correct term. "Salad trident. Salad-salad fork."

Eric raised his head up from the chowder and didn't even open his mouth to speak for a long moment.

"Oh."

Another pause. He began again. "Well I, uh, can't say I blame you. Maybe she did good things while she was in Neverland, but I haven't gotten around to forgiving her for the last twenty-eight years."

"I guess she wanted the satisfaction of demoting you to fisherman."

"I don't know. I never wanted to be a prince, really. It probably sounds selfish. I got to travel anywhere I wanted, but the people I met? I didn't know them at all. There was always this layer of fake interactions and personalities you had to pick through. And even if I did, more often than not I didn't find much. So when Regina cursed me, at least in that respect, she was almost doing me a service."

"Sounds lonely."

"You have no idea," Eric said. "Everyone I talked to at the harbor here, and everyone in my kingdom-they're real people with real problems. Nobody disguised them under some facade. If there's anything I'm still afraid for back in my land, it's my people. My cousin's probably doing better than I ever could, but I worry."

"Maybe someday you'll get the chance to go back."

He sighed, scraping his spoon along the dregs of the bowl. "One more thing I'm afraid of."

After they finished, Ariel handed him her bowl to wash while faraway clicking sounds echoed behind the walls. Eric told her it was the heater, the machine that made the house warm, and that the heat worked better in the living room. So she sat on the couch, and after a few minutes he followed and sat close beside her. She leaned right on his shoulder, sinking further as he stroked her hair, soaking in the idle touch she'd never felt before.

"_Poseidon_, that feels good," Ariel said, still with a weight in her stomach. She leaned closer, searching for a comfort she didn't yet understand. His stubble itched a little, but she liked the heat of his skin too much to move.

Eric leaned over to kiss her temple and she melted into sleepy little giggles which only settled when he lowered his hand to rub her shoulder.

"Do all humans do this?" Ariel fumbled for his free hand. He slipped it in hers, and for a second, she felt like she wasn't dreaming.

"No. Only ones that really like each other," Eric breathed into her hair. "I missed you so much. For so long. Is that crazy? All I had were my dreams of you and my memories of what little time we'd spent together. And when the curse hit, not even that."

"Not crazy at all." She rubbed her nose along the curve of his shoulder into his neck, testing affection. "I've never missed anybody more than you."

She remembered dreaming, so much dreaming, nights and days and counting so many sunsets wondering if she'd ever speak again, let alone see his face. She knew the feeling. Floating in a dark and empty sea: miles of nothing with a sky above and a yawning black below, waiting for the one time of year when for a few small moments she could rise out of the sea and greet the sun up close.

Eric met her eyes. "Did Snow tell you about the curse?"

"Belle did, but only a little. Just that your memories were replaced with new ones, like you said. At least most everybody's were."

"For twenty-eight _years_," he said. She could hear the desperation in his voice, and it hung in the room like a mist. "More than my entire life back in the kingdom. Time was frozen here, but we felt every minute."

"Twenty-eight years? And when the savior-"

"-broke the curse." Eric laughed, and for the first time, she heard in his voice what sounded like bitterness. "Emma Swan broke the curse, and everyone's memories returned. They found out who they were before and their curses ended."

"And yours?"

"Well, it was nice not having an evil queen rule over my life for a while."

"That's not what I asked, Eric."

But she knew the answer, and she knew Eric could tell, because when she settled herself in the hollow above his collarbone, he rested his chin on the top of her head.

Softly, he murmured, "It's been lonely," and she felt every word.

"I know," she said into his neck, "I really know."

The whole room fell silent, and Ariel could hear the low hum of Max breathing in his sleep. She could feel the soft beat of Eric's pulse along his jugular, where her cheek touched.

"Where did you go when I was gone?" Eric asked. "Under the sea?"

"Yeah. And on land when I could, on the highest tide of the year. That's Ursula's gift."

"Were you with family?"

She didn't bother to dignify his question with a laugh. "No."

"Did you have family?"

"Everybody has family, silly," Ariel said. "It's more a matter of whether you stay with them or not."

He paused for a moment, and Ariel could tell he knew when he asked. "Was it your father or your mother?"

It had been so long since she'd been back to that place. That place in her head, the place that was real once long ago, and the one sect of the sea she hadn't explored since. "My father."

She couldn't remember the last time she'd spoken those words aloud.

"Tell me."

"There's not much to say, really, at least not anymore. My father drove me out a long time ago. I was weak, selfish, some childish little fish who refused to do what she was told." Ariel laughed, but not bitterly. Those feelings floated deep in a sea she'd never return to. "It hurt then, but I was young. My father didn't own me and I didn't know that."

The phrase felt unfamiliar outside of her own head. It wasn't a secret-not dark, not shameful. She'd just never come across anyone who wanted to know.

"It must've been frightening for you."

She heard the voice of her father bellowing in her ear after so many long years, and she remembered the spark of his trident in the dark. She thought of it sometimes, white-hot magic shattering soaked wood and metal, but much less now. It took a moment for the thought to subside.

"It was, but I found a way out. There was a grotto some miles from home. I found it when I was searching through a shipwreck, and it was empty, so I made it mine. I moved a big rock in the middle so I could lie back and look at the sun. I filled it with all the human things I could find-for so many years, until I had to chisel out more space in the rocks by myself. It took a lot of work, but I had something to myself."

Ariel wondered what it would look like now. Maybe someone else had cleared it out and made themselves a little safe place, somewhere to keep lonely daydreams of a world more like home.

"Then my father found out, and since he had his trident, you can probably imagine what happened."

"Christ, Ariel. Did he hurt you?"

Ariel heard the concern in his voice. It felt strange to her, hearing new emotions attached to something that hadn't entered her thoughts for so long.

"No, Eric," a genuine smile formed on her lips. "He destroyed my things. That was it. And I knew then that I had to leave. So I did, and I never looked back. Ever. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"But," Eric held her closer, "are you okay? Are you sure?"

"Yes. So much." Ariel squeezed his hand to reassure him. "He's not a part of my life anymore. My whole family-nobody is. And I don't want that life back, not ever. I went as far away as I could, and I ended up near the shore by kingdom. I saw a few merpeople there, but they kept to themselves, so I felt safe. Not home, but safe.

"Sometimes the sea is unbelievably beautiful, but it's not home. It's never been home, at least for me. I'm sure under different circumstances I could've had a happy life down there. But I've spent so much time dreaming of something better than what I had with my family, and for the first time, I think I found it."

"With me?"

"Yeah. I'm not crazy, am I?"

"If you are, I am too." Eric leaned close to kiss the top of her head. "I never stopped dreaming of you. Your face. Whether or not that's supposed to be true love, whatever that means, it doesn't matter. I just want to know you. And this little place is as much your home as it is mine. It's not much, but the heat works most of the time and we're right near the beach."

Ariel heard the softest hint of shame in his voice, as if his home, to her, would be anything short of magic. She didn't care whether it was a palace by the sea, a wandering caravan or a little white house on the beach. He'd invited her to a place where she could dwell with love, like the daydreams she'd drifted through for so many years.

"That's all I want," Ariel said, catching him in a long, sweet kiss. "That's all I've ever wanted."

They met with unpracticed touch, both she and Eric pushing too far with each kiss until their teeth scraped together. Was this what love was like? Pushing and pulling in between bouts of sheepish laughter? Ariel thought of Snow and her husband, how naturally they interacted, and wondered if soon she and Eric would read each other as effortlessly as they did.

Someday, Ariel thought. With practice.

He leaned down to kiss her neck and Ariel grabbed his hair tight as her breath caught in her throat.

"_Too much_," she whimpered out, "_too much_-"

He peeled himself off of her right away and she heard him whisper _easy, easy_, into her skin.

She panted, relieved that she could even speak at all. "I'm so sorry. Again. I'm not very good at this."

"It's okay. All this-it's new for me too." A subtle flush painted his face. "But there's nothing you have to do. We can wait, or we can stop."

She'd spent too much of her life waiting. "Can we go slow?"

His wanting smile said yes and he pulled her onto his lap. She had one leg on either side of him. She grabbed onto his shoulders to balance, still unused to the pull of gravity outside the water. But then both of his hands slid low on her back to steady her, and Ariel felt him brush a sliver of bare skin just above her skirt.

For want of that touch, she peeled off her shirt, and after some hesitation Eric slid his hands on her waist again.

"So much for slow." The pitch in his voice raised just a touch, and he fought to look at her eyes. Ariel felt a proud little smirk cross her lips.

"Should I have worn the purple shells instead?" This was the pair Belle had hurriedly helped her buy the very afternoon she'd returned to Storybrooke, and thus far part of her only human outfit. These shells were made of fabric and were plain and dark, but they seemed to do a fine enough job of distracting the poor fish in front of her.

Eric masked it enough with a grin, at least. "Next time."

She realized he'd never seen them before, which explained the look on his face. She'd have to surprise him when she got the chance.

Eric fell back flat against the couch, pulling her with him, and her whole weight enveloped him. She drank him in with kisses, slow to savor his taste, and felt his hands weave into her hair, which only melted her to him even more. His touch spoke of loneliness, it brimmed with pent-up love, and it broke her heart to feel the desperate pressure of his nails against the back of her neck. But she'd love him until he believed it, and then she'd never stop.

She peered down at his shirt, ran the fabric between her fingers, but whatever it was made of didn't stretch as much as her clothes did. She tugged gently to test.

"Buttons first," Eric said, which thus far meant nothing to her.

She fingered the tiny round pieces running down the center of the shirt. "Why do human clothes have to be so complicated?"

"I wouldn't know," he laughed breathlessly. "They're holding the shirt together in the middle. Slip the button down to where it's attached."

His explanation came too late, as she was already in the middle of investigating. It took some fumbling to maneuver the round button through the slit in the fabric, but she did it. She finished another, and another again, but the task grew increasingly more difficult with the rise and fall of his chest. His breathing felt heavy under her hands, but by the time she felt his skin against hers, his breaths were almost too shallow to notice.

She pressed her forehead against his, watching his dizzy eyes, and then sank to kiss, sucking at the swell of his lip.

"How're you feeling?"

Eric gasped out his words. "Do you really need an answer to that question?"

No, she didn't. She knew exactly what was about to happen and wanted every bit just as much as he did. But she had no idea how to proceed, at least with the legs she had now.

"Eric," she said, "you're, uh, going to need to swim me through this. Walk me through this."

It took him a long moment to answer, and it almost made her wonder if she had misread his intentions. "Why don't I walk you to the bedroom first."

When Eric led her upstairs, he checked behind him every few moments, as if to see if she was still there.

His bedroom was peppered with old books and maps of places she'd never heard of, and she had trouble finding any unoccupied spaces of wall. It reminded her of the grotto she'd had back home. She looked at the pictures on the covers of the books: trees and rock formations as multicolored as corals, with fauna to match. The names of these places belonged only in fish tales. Marianas Trench, the High Sierra, the One-Hundred Mile Wilderness. The last of these lands shared a map with Storybrooke.

By the amount of books he'd collected on that very place, Ariel guessed he'd never gotten the chance to see it.

Ariel heard the door click shut. She suddenly felt half-dressed and found the zipper to her skirt, kicking the fabric to the floor along with her tights.

She sat on the bed, expecting to join him there, but he still stood in front of the door, sliding his shirt off and tossing it near her skirt. He didn't make a move otherwise.

"This is your first time." Ariel didn't need an answer. She knew without him saying.

His voice was almost too quiet to hear. "Yeah."

"Well don't look so embarrassed about it. It's mine too," she giggled. "Come here."

As soon as he sat on the bed, she straddled his lap, slowly growing used to having two points of balance. No matter how she sat, she couldn't get enough of being close, and from the giddy smile that formed on Eric's lips, neither could he.

She kissed through his smile. "So we'll be walking each other through this, then."

He finally reached behind her for her shells, and she rolled her shoulders to help slip them off.

"You're nervous," Ariel said. More like terrified.

"Is it obvious?"

His heartbeat thundered under her fingertips.

"Only a little." On his lips she tasted salt and fervor; she kept his grief on her tongue. She could understand a loneliness like his, kept quiet under a curse he didn't deserve. "If it helps, I'm scared too. But what happened between the ball and now-it doesn't have to own us. We'll be okay."

"We can hope."

"We will." She leaned in to whisper, nipping gently at his ear. "Now, aren't you overdressed?"

"A little," he said, and there came the smirk she wanted. "I'll fix it." He laid a hand on her shoulder until she pressed her back against the bed, his sudden boldness surprising her. A little push really did work.

"But first," he said, leaning over her, "you have to do me a favor."

"What?"

"Take off the bracelet."

"But then I'll-"

He just nodded with a smile, and she lifted her hips to slip off the last of her clothes. She bit her lip through a giggle, remarking on a previous conversation with a certain Evil Queen.

"I can't say I expected that," Ariel said, making a mental note to fill him in later.

"Did I make you happy?"

She pulled him down to her neck and nuzzled into his hair until she heard him laugh. "Very."

After so many travels to land and back, she'd grown used to the feeling of her legs fusing into her tail. When the cloud of smoke faded, she set her bracelet on the bedside table and flicked her fins against the sheets.

He leaned down to kiss just below her bellybutton, running a curious hand down the center of her tail. She suppressed a low whimper. Of course, he probably heard it anyway, given the smirk on his face.

"I said I wanted to know you. All of you. Besides, it might be for the best, as far as I know." The breath from his laugh made her curl her fins against his leg. "I don't have any condoms."

"Condoms?"

A pause followed, too long to be comfortable. "Uh-later. It'll ruin the moment."

Then they'd both have something to tell, Ariel thought as Eric fumbled with his belt. She entertained the notion of trying to help him out, but she'd had enough trouble with buttons and was more than content to watch. "You're already blushing," she said.

He crawled back on the bed until she felt his weight over her, and he nuzzled her nose. "So are you."

She hadn't noticed any heat in her cheeks until he mentioned it. But then the feeling washed over her like a wave, much stronger than the flutter in her stomach at the ball so many years ago. More than regal gowns or the gaze of a hundred onlookers or the trill of music, delicately composed.

Her fingers trailed the line of his jaw just to prove to herself that this was real. The soft hitch in his breath told her yes. Never again would this tenderness, theirs, be confined to a memory a dream.

Finally she bared her neck for him to kiss, but even after she braced herself, nothing happened.

"Ariel?"

She leaned back her neck further, welcoming his touch, and let her arms hang at his shoulderblades. "What?"

"I know you're the one who rescued me."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you-"

"No, no, I understand. It's okay." He pressed a delicate kiss to the shell of her ear. "But...did you sing?"

"A little. I thought it might help you wake up." Her surprise faded into a smile. "You remember?"

"I've only dreamed about it ever since it happened," He said, threading his fingers through her hair. "I should've known. Mermaid songs are legendary in our land."

"Would you like me to sing to you again?"

"More than anything." He lowered his lips to kiss her again, deep and sure.

They had barely parted when she opened her mouth to sing. She kept the melody soft enough so only he could hear, just like the morning after his rescue. Only this time he was the one above her, and he sunk into the sound, pressing his forehead against hers. And soon her song fluttered to a sigh as he slid inside her. She dug her nails into the skin of his shoulders.

This was far from the way merpeople made love to one another, as far as she'd heard. Silent, tails spiraled together, floating somewhere empty in the sea. This was close, this was raw, gravity and sweat and heated breath and the rough graze of his stubble against her lips, her shoulder, the soul of her voice. But tender, too, with a rhythm slow, tidal. He whispered small things and she cried out low into his ear, more as he drew himself closer, and she shut her eyes tight and felt hot tears down her temples.

"Am I hurting you?" Through the strain in his voice, she could hear Eric struggling to form the words.

"No."

He slowed anyway, probably just to be sure, but his own restraint made her want to squirm out the stirring heat in her. She made an impatient noise, but subtlety wasn't overtaking the considerate prince in him. So she pulled him down by the back of his neck and crushed her mouth to his, rolling her tail hard against his hips.

He shivered, every muscle along his shoulders and back drawing taut like a line. A muffled, hungry sound let her know she had him, but she wasn't about to let go. She waited, kissing deeper until he finally gasped out for air and bucked along with her. His breath made the sweat on her neck run cold, but she didn't care. She drowned a sigh of his name, and then again, until she gripped him like she'd drift to the bottom of the sea, winding her tail around one of his legs.

This threw him off balance and he nearly toppled over her. The bed creaked as his knee landed beside her tail, still tangled in his other leg. He dug his face into her neck and hissed words she'd never heard before as he fought for coherent speech.

"Oh God, I'm sorry." He panted helplessly, wiping the sweaty hair from his face. "I'm so sorry."

She let her tail slip off of his leg, damp scales scoring skin, but still had no idea why he apologized in the first place. Had she hurt him? But why was he the one apologizing? She caught her breath enough to begin to ask, but when he pulled out and she felt his fingers curl inside her instead, she knew exactly why.

He seemed to want to lean close. Maybe to kiss, maybe to whisper something, but the shame in his face showed in his hesitation.

"You're fine," she sighed out, and pulled him to her, "you're fine."

Even as his hand settled into a steady motion, Eric's gaze didn't once leave her eyes. She tried her best to do the same. It didn't last long. The touch of his fingers pulled her into a ragged cry, and she fell undone, rolling to her side and wrapping her tail around his leg, gentler this time.

She felt her cheeks grow wet again, and his hand slowed in response, but through her tears she gasped, "Keep going," and clung to his shoulders. "Please-"

He cradled her head to him and for a brief moment Ariel trained her eyes up to his until she felt the pressure of his fingers, harder, and curled up against him as tightly as she could. She trembled against his chest. She squeezed her tail around his leg, fins flicking uselessly over the sheets as her tail rocked in time with his hand.

He whispered into her hair, "I've got you. I've got you, sweetheart," and held her together until the feeling crested over with a soft, heavy sigh. He drew her close, stroking the back of her neck with his thumb until she went silent and limp in his arms.

She kissed his heartbeat then. A steady pulse, as she imagined hers would be soon. But not now. Thankfully Eric seemed more than willing to keep her in his arms for as long as she liked. She looked up at him and nuzzled his cheek. He met her in a slow, lazy kiss.

"You might want this back," he said with a sleepy smile, twirling the bracelet on his finger. She slipped it on, and as soon as her tail formed back into legs, she wrapped them both around one of his and heard a groan resonate from his chest.

"So you can cuddle with a human, huh?"

"I figured sweaty scales might be uncomfortable."

"Well, I'm kind of covered in sweat. And not all of it's mine." She blew her hair out of her face, giddy to see him blush.

"We can shower later, if you want."

By the slight slur in his voice, she imagined "later" meant whenever he felt like getting up.

Truth be told, she couldn't blame him. "And by later, I hope you mean much later."

"Reading my mind already, Miss Mermaid." Eric pulled the covers over them both, and she snuggled against him until only her eyes and her hair peeked out from the blankets. Her eyes drifted closed. She soaked in the touch of his hand on her back in lazy motions, but after a while she heard a scratch at the door and a long whine. She opened her eyes again.

Eric flopped his head against the pillow. "Max," he groaned, practically rolling out of bed to get dressed, not even bothering to button his shirt.

"Okay, okay, Max, I know. I'll let you out." As soon as he opened the door, Max pounced on him and wagged his tail, licking all over his hands before he even got the chance to pet the poor creature. Eric made a pitiful attempt to smooth his hair out of his eyes and Ariel had to stifle a giggle when he wiped his hand on his pants.

"We'll pick this up later, then?" She said.

"A bit later," he mumbled, rolling his shoulders. "Wait for me."


	3. Part III

After a shower, Eric lent her one of his shirts to sleep in. They went to bed early that night and Ariel woke well before the sun.

She rolled over to face him, careful not to nudge Max, who slept by her feet. Sometime in the night, her hair had dried, and it took a few tries to blow the unkempt curls out of her eyes. There wasn't enough moonlight for her make out the whole room, but she saw enough of Eric's face in the small red light of the bedside clock. They spoke in the kind of hushed tones that people use in small hours, because the world is still quiet and it would hurt to wake it up.

"I thought you'd be sleeping," he muttered, cheek pressed against his pillow. "Did I wake you?"

She shook her head.

Eric rolled over to peer at the clock before turning back to her. "It's four in the morning."

"Mermaids don't turn time into numbers. I wake up when I wake up."

"On a fisherman's schedule?"

"I don't like to miss sunrises."

"Well we've got a good while until that happens," he said. "But if you'd like, I'll make breakfast while we wait."

If a typical morning smelled like Eric's kitchen, Ariel thought, then the transition to being human wouldn't be so bad at all. She hovered over his shoulder to watch him cook things called pancakes, then eggs-from birds, not fish like she'd expected. And when he finished, he poured a viscous brown liquid on the pancakes. A kind of tree sap, apparently. She cringed when he did so until he offered her a piece and it tasted sweet.

They planned errands over the rest of breakfast. It felt wonderful to slip into a pattern that seemed like normalcy, to bask in quiet love in this little house.

They watched the sunrise from the glass kitchen doors, with Max at their feet, but the sky was cloudy and it muted the colors on the sea. Eric told her they could try again tomorrow.

"It's supposed to clear up today," Eric said as he put the dishes in the sink, peering out the kitchen window. "Sometime, at least. Would you like to go for a walk with me later on? Out on the beach, maybe."

"You know I'd love to," she said, hugging him from behind. "But you're gonna have to teach me how to walk on sand with legs. I still haven't mastered that yet."

"That I can do. And Max won't forgive me if I leave without him…"

"Of course he can come, Eric. He's family."

After Eric had her clothes washed, Ariel followed him out the back door toward the beach. A narrow path squeezed between the rocky hill, but it had been well-worn, and it didn't take long to make it past the dune grass and to the beach far below.

Walking best on the sand, she discovered, was less a problem with her feet and more to do with her shoes. She slipped them off after Eric caught her in a fall a third time, and the sand felt cool under her feet. Not like anything she remembered. Cooler than even yesterday.

She looked up at the sky, still coated with clouds. Wasn't it supposed to clear out today? Eric didn't seem distressed, at least not as much as Max, who whined as the wind blew the sand where he'd been digging his nose.

"Is he always like that?" Ariel asked as she watched the dog sniff and paw at the sand.

"He must've found something."

Max shot his head up and barked, barrelling down the shoreline until the rocks stopped him from going any farther.

"Max!" Eric called and sprinted after him. Ariel followed as fast as she could, but Eric had already stopped in the middle of the beach, and she saw the color leave his face.

She panted, feeling suddenly cold, "Eric? What happened?"

"Can you swim out of Storybrooke?"

"Yes, but-"

Eric turned to her and said, "You need to do it now," but then to the beach again. "Max, _Max!_ Get back here!"

When he ran after Max again, she followed Eric's gaze from before. Nothing abnormal along the ocean. But towards the mountains, a green cloud of smoke poured between trees and to the town. She made a move to follow Eric, but he'd already returned, panting and holding Max on a lead.

"I've seen this before-just once," he breathed out. " It's a curse."

"So this is Regina?"

"I don't know, but for our sake I hope not. You need to get out."

"And not take you or Max? No! Eric, I could never-"

"If I try to leave Storybrooke, I'll lose my memories. That's my curse."

"Eric, we don't even know what's going to happen to us. So I should just, what? Leave you behind?"

"If you've got a chance to escape, why wouldn't you?"

"I already lost you once." The wind picked up enough that she had to raise her voice to say, "I won't lose you again."

"Please. You have a chance!"

"I won't! I'll wait it out with you."

A mist of rain fell onto the beach and the chill of wind became a deep, wet cold. The sky darkened, but Ariel heard no thunder. Not yet.

"At least wait inside with me, then." Eric took his free hand in hers and tugged on Max's leash and they sped off toward home. She didn't have time to recover her shoes, and by the time they made it to the house, the rocks and sticks along the way had torn the bottoms of her tights. She pulled them off at the door and they crumpled in a soaking of footprints.

As soon as she closed the porch door and Eric unclipped Max from his leash, the dog scratched at the glass on his hind legs, barking and howling out to the town. Ariel peered out too, and Eric soon after. The cloud of smoke had already begun to race downtown.

"The library." Ariel watched a wisp of smoke floating over the clock tower. "Belle's down there. And maybe Snow and her husband, and-"

"Everyone. It's spreading." Eric squinted through the sea spray on the door. The waves tumbled onto shore and dragged her abandoned shoes out of the sand. "Maybe if we get to the bedroom we can try to ride it out."

"Do you think that'll work?"

"Not at all. But I can't watch a curse like that again."

She ran upstairs behind him, then leaned back in his arms when he sat on the bed and opened them. The half-open door swung back when Max came inside and leapt on both of their laps-not fitting all the way, but enough. Ariel threaded her fingers on top of Eric's and wound both of their arms around Max.

Through the thin curtains on the window, Ariel watched the clouds rise and coat the sky until it grew as dark as the stones that lined the seashore. She couldn't trace the curse from here, as the town was obscured by trees, but by the new chill in the air she expected it to reach them soon.

Would this have been happening if she'd been braver at the ball? If she hadn't endangered Snow or returned too late to meet Eric? She felt his arms around her, every second a little tighter, and she burst out, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Why?"

"This didn't have to happen to you." Ariel felt a soft tremble in the house as the curse no doubt grew closer, and it rattled the maps and pictures on the walls. "You deserved better. But I left you here alone."

"I'm with you now," he whispered, kissing a gentle line behind her ear. "It doesn't matter. And if we get separated again..."

"I'll swim through every ocean until I find you."

His grip on her strengthened, every muscle tight against her. She turned to him and dappled kisses on his cheek, just below his eyes, shut tight to brace himself for twenty-eight more years of slow, aching loneliness. As soon as she let her lips fall against his, he pressed hard, devouring her touch. She let him, leaning into him as much as he did until finally she heard the hollow hiss of smoke brush against the window.

They broke apart to watch and Max whimpered and curled closer in their laps, but the smoke only just touched the glass before it sunk out of sight.

"Is it gone?" She slipped off the bed to get closer to the window.

"Ariel, don't-"

"Eric," she said, peering beyond the curtain to a clear view below, "Come over here."

He obliged and looked over her shoulder. "It's gone," he said in a tone that wasn't quite believing. But once he looked again, the smile on his face was just like the one he'd given her at the docks the day before. "We'll be okay."

When Max barked and whimpered at their feet, Eric hoisted him up in his arms to look out the window. "See, boy?" He kissed Max's fur and, after he almost wiggled out of his arms, set the dog down. "Oh, sorry, Max."

"So you kiss Max and not me, huh?" The pout on her face didn't last long when he lifted her in his arms and tossed her on the bed and pressed kiss after kiss on her cheeks until her laughter almost made her run out of breath.

"Oh stop it, Eric," she giggled, bracing her hands on his shoulders as she opened her eyes again. And there above her was what made her freeze in place. "Eric?"

A flash of purple hovered over the room. She clung tightly to his shoulders as he turned to look, and the both of them fell away in cold, cold smoke.

The last thing Ariel remembered was the exact moment when the fabric of Eric's shirt left her fingertips.

Now there was only blue. Cold, deep blue and she couldn't find the sun. She took a breath, expecting to welcome water like air, but instead it flooded her lungs and she thrashed in all directions, groping for the surface. But before she could, something tugged at her collar, and in a matter of seconds she breached the surface and choked for her first breaths of air.

This creature dragged her through the shallows and when sand finally touched her, she fell on her hands and knees and coughed up sand and water. She wiped stinging saltwater from her eyes and looked down at her rescuer. "Max," she muttered weakly, and the dog responded by shaking out his fur all over her. She was soaked anyway, so it didn't matter much.

A distant call. "Max! Ariel!"

Ariel knew that voice. She struggled to her feet, clothes soaked and heavy, and nearly got the wind knocked out of her again when Eric ran to meet her and hoisted her in his arms.

"I'm here, I'm here," she said, holding him tightly in kind. She coughed out again when he set her down. "No wonder you humans can't breathe underwater."

"Are you okay?" He rubbed her arms and she could feel him shaking. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, Eric. I guess that curse's aim was a little off."

A growing orange light caught her eye and she squinted from its intensity, peering out to the gently-rippling sea. Sunrise. She shivered in the new morning wind, soaked and human, ill-fit for for the unforgiving water that saturated her clothes. Eric wrapped his arms around her waist and she was warm again.

The tide lapped at her bare toes and she shifted her gaze across the beach. There, far along the line of the shore, stood the castle she remembered. It looked the same from the outside-still golden in the sunlight, though no torches burned along its balconies.

"We're home," Eric said, keeping his eyes on her instead.

"You don't sound so sure."

"I'm not. I'm just a fisherman now. Not a prince."

There was a time not so long ago when she had the same kind of fear in the shadow of that castle-of what its prince might have thought if he truly knew his rescuer. There was a time, too, when she would have sacrificed anything to be human permanently, to cast the sea aside and walk on land forever, but not now. She had fins and she had legs. She could love with both. She could be loved with both.

She brought his hands up to kiss, thumbing over every worn line on his palms. "I remember a prince. He saved his crew on a sinking ship, only to go down with it himself. Then, after more than twenty-eight years…"

Her story was theirs now. She would share in his grief, in fear, and in strife as she would in his love. He kissed her then, parting with a wry smile, and she knew exactly what he was about to say.

"He caught himself a mermaid."

Thank you all very much for sticking through this fic - I hope it's brought you through this hiatus as well as it did for me. I'm hoping there will be many more fics of these characters to follow, both written by me and others. Feels and feedback are much appreciated, as there will no doubt be more fic after this. Enjoy your Sundays, lovely readers!


End file.
